Ever wish that you could say what you really feel about something going on in Klal? Ever wonder just why Klal acts/thinks the way it does? Here members of Klal can have the conversations they should be having but that aren't happening elsewhere, except, perhaps, in whispered conversations in dark corners. Say what you mean here, and let us hope that some conversation now will lead to changes later, some changes that are long overdue in Klal.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Seeing is Seeing

I have posted before that many of the older members of Klal have vision problems. For them reading a siddur or chumash or bencher is difficult to impossible. There are many large print seforim available. In addition, the Jewish Heritage for the Blind has such material available at no charge for those who are legally blind--an opthalmologist's written certification is necessary. All contact information is at the link as well as listings of what material is available. If someone in your family or a friend or neighbor requires this large print material, please tell them about the sources to get it. Or be a really good friend and buy them the gift of comfortable reading.

Note: in order to facilitate the larger print size, the size of the seforim is far larger than the regular-sized equivalents, resulting in many more pages and a heavier sefer. You may also need to keep the weight/size of the sefer in mind when choosing for an older person with vision problems.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

People should know that legally blind doesn't mean not being able to see at all. A person can have extremely poor vision (20/200 in their best eye) and be considered legally blind. The Guild for the Blind also has a lot of services that are free of charge to people with this type of vision loss, and they have a lot of products that help people with vision loss live a normal life.

Anonyomous, obviously ProfK was referring to legally blind individuals with some remaining sight, not totally blind individuals, or she would have mentioned items available in Braille instead. Large print is pretty useless if you don't have any vision.

Just a quick qualification -- the 20/200 cut-off is *with* best correction -- I see 20/600 without my glasses, but as I am fully correctable to 20/20 with them, I do not qualify as legally blind at all.

JBI International (Jewish Blind Institute) http://www.jbilibrary.org/ is another resource.

Oops, Mary Poppins already mentioned JBI. So I'll just add that many siddurim and sefarim are available in other formats too, such as Braille and in Audio format for those without enough usable vision to struggle with Large Print. There is even Hebrew Braille -- but fyi, the Braille siddur Jewish Heritage sent out to every Orthodox synagogue in America several years back is in English. My father (who is totally blind) says this makes it not very useful for following an Orthodox service.

About Me

I'm a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend. I believe that activism can be a force for change. I blog because I believe that an exchange of information can be a positive force in the Jewish world. For comments about Conversations In Klal please write to conversationsinklal@hotmail.com. For comments about Jewish Community Services please write to jewishcommunityservices@live.com